Adventures in Cartooning #009 – Fonts

Here it is! Another installment of Adventures in Cartooning (Or things I wish I knew months ago). This week’s topic is fonts!

When I started this strip I used Comic Sans as the font for all the dialogue. Why? Because it was already on my computer and it was easy to do. As I continued to use it, it started to bug me more and more. Not that its a bad font, just because its very… generic. So I decided to find a better font for my characters.

I searched the net for a few, but found a great selection of free fonts over at Blambot. They have lots to choose from and there are a few that are free for personal use or independent publishers! I downloaded a few that I thought I had a use for and within minutes was able to put them to use. I’m a very messy hand writer, and a more unique font is a better way to go then using my own sloppy handwriting or a generic font.

Blambot also has a few tutorials on fonts and lettering. The best one is about Comic Book Grammar and Tradition, which I’ve found very useful. It goes into balloon placement, tails, sound effects and more.

If there is anyone out there that’s looking to add a little more punch to their text, try a new font or some new placement techniques! Maybe you’ll find something that works for you.